


Bloom and break

by ticklishpickle



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, M/M, Plantboy Phil Lester
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-04
Updated: 2018-01-04
Packaged: 2019-02-28 06:59:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13266153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ticklishpickle/pseuds/ticklishpickle
Summary: Phil Lester’s been hiding something his whole life. No, not murder, or being gay. He’s out and proud. He has the power to grow plants- but only when he has feelings for someone. Sounds cool, right?Not when it nearly cost him his life. Phil had fallen deeply in love with his last boyfriend, and when he’d left him Phil wilted like every plant he’d grown during their time together. After a few crappy months in hospital (aka the worst time in his life), Phil promised himself he would never let himself catch feelings again.Two years later, Phil has moved on and has a best friend, Dan Howell. Everything’s going great, they hang out pretty much every day and Phil is happier than he’s ever been. That is, until he finds himself with growing feelings (and plants).





	Bloom and break

 

Phil Lester wasn’t normal. Sure, he went to high school like a normal 17 year old, had a solid group of friends and even had a fairly good relationship with both his parents. But the difference between him and most 17 year olds was that he had a power.

 

Whenever Phil began growing feelings for someone, plants would grow on him, around him, under him; the intensity of the growth all dependent on the intensity of his feelings.

 

It sounded a lot cooler than it actually was.

 

Maybe at first it was fairly innocuous, like when he was seven years old and had a small crush on a girl in his class named Sally. A small green stalk had shot out of the palm of his hand, and while it confused him at first it wasn’t a point of concern. Seven year old Phil had actually liked his power.

 

Plants continued to grow on and around Phil; small daisies shooting out of the ground when he walked to school, the grass he ran over while playing tiggy turning greener, and even some wilted plants reviving when he touched them. Phil knew that if he told anybody about his powers they wouldn’t believe him but that was ok; he was content keeping this little secret to himself.

 

When Sally moved away however, this all changed. The daisies that had grown on the sidewalk? Shrivelled. The grass at school? Wilted. The plants he’d revived? Dead as they were before he touched them.

 

Phil had noticed this- the sudden death of all the plants he’d grown in the past few months and was feeling confusion and disappointment on top of his sadness over Sally leaving. Phil wasn’t doing much better than the plants either. It was harder to breathe when running all of a sudden, he’d suddenly become quite thirsty for water when he’d always preferred juice and the sun would burn him a lot easier than it had before.

 

At the time Phil hadn’t connected the dots but it was clear what had happened; Sally moving away caused not only the plants to wilt and shrivel, but Phil as well.

 

Things only got worse from there on out for as Phil got older he developed deeper feelings for people and for longer periods of time, too.

 

His little crush on Sally was nothing compared to the most recent person he’d fallen for; Thomas Ryan.

 

Thomas had asked Phil out two years ago when Phil was nothing more than a naive freshman. Initially, Phil had been reluctant to date someone two years older than him but eventually Thomas had won him over with his enviable smile and charming personality. They dated happily for one year, in which Thomas had taken Phil out for countless romantic dinners, picnic lunches in the park and even ice skating a couple times.

In that year, Phil had grown more plants than he ever thought he could. Huge, metre tall sunflowers would spring up whenever he walked in the park. Bright blue petunias would spring up in his neighbours’ gardens when he’d bid them a good morning.

 

Most notable of all, however was what grew the night Phil had fallen in love with the older boy.

 

The morning after he’d fallen in love with Thomas he’d woken up to find a beautiful red rose- growing out of his chest! Phil wasn’t expecting it at all, either. He’d probably grown every flower known to man previously, ever flower except a rose. When he’d woken up and discovered the rose growing out of his chest, he’d yelped and hastily pulled it out. The thorns on the stem had pricked his skin, causing a small amount of blood to seep out and Phil to hiss in pain. Once he’d cleaned himself up however, he’d examined the rose closely. It was deep red in colour, had petals that had no imperfections or creases and when he’d smelt it he’d sworn it was what heaven smelled of.

 

As he skipped to school that day flowers of every kind had blossomed out of the ground, suddenly and bigger in size than they usually were. Phil felt on top of the world. When he’d finally reached school, he’d thrusted the rose in Thomas’ face and wished him a happy anniversary.

 

“Wait. Is that today?” Thomas had asked, a panic-stricken look on his face.

 

Phil had retracted the rose from his boyfriend’s face sheepishly, feeling quite awkward. He’d forgotten.

 

Silence followed. Phil hadn’t known what to feel. A little hurt, of course but at least it hadn’t been Thomas’ intention to hurt him. Things like this happened all the time! It wasn’t a big deal. Phil had been just about to tell his boyfriend that he was forgiven when,

 

“I-I think we should break up.”

 

His stomach had dropped.

 

“What?”

 

Thomas had bitten his lip, clearly debating something in his mind before speaking again.

 

“I’m so sorry I’m doing this today of all days but I can’t keep this going any longer. I just- I just don’t think I love you anymore. And I feel so fucking shitty for doing this today of all days but I’ve been planning to for a while now and I can’t keep dragging you on like this any longer. It’s not fair on either of us.”

 

Phil ended up not going to class that day. After Thomas had comforted Phil for a few minutes he’d attempted to coax him into going to class. Phil had simply shaken his head and stood his ground, crying even more when the bell rung and Thomas left.

 

When he’d finally worked up the energy to walk home, he remembered the flower he’d kept in his hand the whole time.

 

The rose was dead and black, its previously plump and soft petals shrivelled into nothing. Its smell had disappeared, too and all that was left were the thorns.  Phil would’ve started crying had he not spent the past two hours bawling his eyes out.

 

That night he’d gone to bed with a minor headache, hoping that would be the extent of the post-breakup deterioration. He was wrong. Just within the span of a few days, Phil had grown so weak he’d lost his ability to eat, move or even breathe properly. He’d wilted like the rose.

 

Phil’s mum had been understandably distressed over his health, and so the day she found her son sickly pale and coughing up blood she’d put her foot down and admitted him into hospital despite his protests.

 

The next few months were filled with medical bills his mum couldn’t afford, hundreds of tests to find out what Phil’s illness actually was and more injections than he could count. By the end of it, Phil had sworn he would never allow himself to fall in love again. If the risk of falling in love was his own life it was one he just wasn’t willing to take.

 

-

 

Phil swung his school bag over his shoulder and walked hastily over to his friend’s locker. He tried to ignore the immense pressure he felt on his shoulder from the weight of all the textbooks that he was going to pretend to read over the weekend. He made a note to buy the online copies of his books next year in order to save his shoulders dying from the weight of chemistry and mathematics- the subjects were already doing that to his mind.

 

He reached the locker of interest and stood expectantly in front of its owner, his hands on his hips. Dan always took a billion years to pack up his stuff after school. After a few seconds, Phil grew impatient as Dan still hadn’t noticed his presence and so took matters into his own hands.

 

“Daniel…. It’s time for your neck exam!” Phil said in the creepiest, sing-songiest voice he could with his post-pubescent vocal chords. He shot his hand out and lightly brushed over his friend’s sensitive neck, laughing when Dan dropped his textbook to the ground and jerked away. He looked around for a few second before he noticed Phil standing there, a proud smile on his face.

 

“Not cool, Phil. You know how much I hate having my neck touched!”  
  
Dan’s warm brown eyes were now narrowed and accusing, his forehead crinkled up in a way Phil thought was very amusing. His arms were crossed defensively against the My Chemical Romance tshirt he always insisted on wearing. The one giveaway that he wasn’t actually mad was the small smile fighting its way onto his face, nearly overpowering the glare he was giving Phil.

 

“Oh hush, you don’t even care when I do it. You were taking too long anyway.” Phil grinned up at his friend as he bent down to pick up the worn textbook that had dropped to the floor. He frowned when he examined the pages properly- they were all tattered and falling out. Maybe it would be best if Dan bought the online copies of the textbooks next year too.

 

“I SO do care when you do it, Lester.” Dan argued weakly, his face tinted red all of a sudden. He looked like a nervous tomato.

 

Phil unzipped Dan’s backpack and carefully placed the textbook in the back pocket, not wanting to cause the pages even more damage.

 

“Whatever you say, Howell.” Phil replied, amusement clear in his voice as he finished zipping the pocket back up.

 

“You should really take better care of your books, you know. They cost a lot.”

 

Dan shrugged his shoulders thoughtlessly, causing his backpack to hitch up a little and closed his locker door. He pushed Phil on the shoulder playfully, eliciting a laugh from his black-haired friend.

 

“It’s alright. I’ll be burning them as soon as we get out of this hellhole anyways.” he marched over in the direction of the gate, Phil not noticing at first before quickly catching up to his side. “Now, your place or mine?” Dan wiggled his eyebrows mock-suggestively.

 

This was a running joke between the two friends; always asking whose place to go to when they both knew they’d always end up going to Phil’s. It was just an added bonus that they could turn it into a joke about one night stands as well. Though they’d only been friends for just over a year, Dan had been to Phil’s house approximately 293 times. It was a very fast-growing friendship, as well. Phil had made his return to school after spending three months in hospital, hoping things would be the same with his friends. They weren’t.

 

The entire year level plus the whole of Thomas’ year level had caught wind of Phil’s hospitalisation. To the doctors, his mum and the school he had a ‘severe but treatable case of an illness yet to be officially registered’. He’d become  ‘mystery boy’ and ‘the sick one’ to friends he’d hoped would never treat him differently because of it but the sad thing was that they did.

 

It wasn’t necessarily even bad, either. Phil knew they only had the best intentions but he couldn’t stand any more pitying looks or comments from his friends, so it came as a relief when Dan transferred to the school.

 

Just as tall, just as introverted and possibly even more awkward than Phil himself, Dan had sat next to Phil in literature one day and they’d been friends ever since. Phil admired Dan’s love for Shakespeare and his sarcastic sense of humour that he’d since adopted; Dan admired Phil’s disgustingly positive outlook on the world. They were quite similar, but also different in many ways. Their friendship was just one of those things that just worked, like peanut butter and jelly.

 

The walk back to Phil’s house was full of teasing, banter and complaints about all the homework they needed to but probably weren’t going to do until the night before it was due. Walking home was always a little hard for Phil as he’d usually be reminded of that one day two years ago when he’d walked home, running past hundreds of wilted plants that had bloomed when he’d had Thomas. It got easier every day, not by a lot but when he’d started walking back with Dan all thoughts of that day had suddenly become non-existent.

 

After an easy ten minutes, they’d arrived at the familiar house and immediately begun raiding Phil’s cupboard and refrigerator for food. They were well aware it had been 2 hours since they’d last eaten, and quite frankly that was 2 hours too long for two lanky teenage boys.

 

After 15 minutes of fruitless searching, both Dan and Phil gave up. All they’d managed to find in Phil’s cupboards were expired pop tarts, vegetables (shiver) and a few questionable cuts of beef. Dan had taken to melodramatically crying in the pantry, sitting on the floor and hugging his knees to his chest.

 

“WHY PHILIP, WHY? I’M SO HUNGRY!” he wailed before fully collapsing onto the floor.

 

“Dan! Get up, you spoon.” Phil sniffed in amusement at the sight in front of him. Dan would definitely have an imprint of flour on his butt when he stood up.

 

“I’ll just order pizza, it’s fine.”  Phil shook his head and took his cell phone out, dialling the number for his favourite pizza restaurant.

 

Dan abruptly stood up and dusted his black jeans of flour and other pantry floor particles.   


“Oh. I’ll have a large pepperoni please. But hold the pepperoni.” Dan declared, no sign of humour in his voice.   
  
Phil looked at Dan incredulously, what was his friend thinking? That was just a cheese pizza then! He was a strange one indeed. A second later, someone picked up on the other line and Phil was forced to talk to a stranger, something he’d hated his whole life.

 

“H-hello. I’d like a large chicken pizza and a-,” Phil looked at Dan disappointedly, shaking his head, “large PLAIN cheese pizza. Yep. That’ll be all. Thank you.”

 

Dan gaped at Phil, apparently shocked for some reason. He gesticulated wildly for a second then realised no words were coming out of his mouth.

 

“Phil! What was that? I told you I wanted a pepperoni pizza, hold the peppers. What was that?”

 

“Oh my god, Dan. That’s what you told me to order! You said, pepperoni pizza, hold the pepperoni. I just assumed you wanted a cheese pizza and were trying to be funny!” Phil couldn’t stop himself from laughing now, Dan’s face had gone all pouty and sad.  It was hilarious.

 

“Oh fuck. Did I?” Dan’s mouth was still open in shock.

 

“Yes!”

 

“Well you better call them and change it!” Dan exclaimed, looking expectantly at his friend.

 

If it were anyone else, Phil would have refused. His best friend was a pleb, however and as his best friend it was his job to be understanding of that. Shaking his head at Dan, Phil dialled the pizza place back up.

-

By 8pm the pizza was long gone and the boys had taken to playing Mario Kart on the couch. Phil bit his lip in concentration, working hard to beat Dan at the game he always seemed to win. They’d played the game every Friday together for the better part of two years, and Phil was still yet to beat Dan.   
  
Phil’s character of choice, Yoshi was zooming through the track. He was in second place, quickly gaining on Dan’s character, Mario who was in first. He zipped over a rainbow speed booster, instantly overtaking Dan who had missed it and yelled out triumphantly. He continued zooming through the course, only a few seconds away from the finish line when a green shell hit him right in the back, allowing Dan to easily overtake him just before the finish line.

 

Phil threw his controller frustratedly onto the couch. This wasn’t fair. Dan won every time! And to lose by something as lame as a green shell, not even a blue shell was just embarrassing. He refused to look at Dan or the screen.

 

“Ha! Did you choose Yo-shi cause yo-r SHIT?” Dan quipped, nudging Phil in the side. He was way too pleased about this, his eyes crinkling up with glee and the dimple on his left cheek popping out. This would not do.

 

Phili pushed the stupid boy in front of him, causing him to fall onto the couch butt first.

 

“That was a terrible joke. Apologise.” He demanded, crossing his arms.

 

His friend’s face showed no signs of remorse or guilt, however and instead of apologising he merely grinned and held out a hand to Phil.

 

“Nope. Help me up now please.”

 

Phil glared angrily down at him, but they both knew he wasn’t really mad. Being the kind friend he was, he begrudgingly reached his arm out but was caught off guard when he was suddenly jerked onto the body below him.

 

“Daniel!” he yelped, his voice two octaves higher than it usually was.

 

His face was squashed into the crook of the other boy’s neck awkwardly while their hands stayed linked. Phil felt the warmth of Dan’s chest radiating onto him, an admittedly nice feeling. Phil could feel Dan’s heartbeat, it was beating way faster than any healthy heart should. The boys remained silent, neither sure what to do next.

 

After too long, Phil pushed himself off the chest below him using both hands and sat up straight. The warm feeling that had overtaken his body was now gone. He felt strangely disappointed for some reason.

 

A slightly pink-in-the-face Dan scrambled up too, making sure to keep a reasonable distance between him and Phil on the couch. He cleared his throat and sniffed.

 

“It was a _great_ joke and you know it. Don’t even try to deny it.” Dan’s voice sounded a little shaky and held an air of false confidence that Phil chose not to comment on for fear of making this kind of awkward moment even worse.

 

“Hmph. Well Mario? How about, Mari-no humility!” Phil decided on saying, knowing his joke would go down well with Dan.

 

“Oh my god. You did it. A joke even worse than mine.”   
  
-

  
The rest of the night was pretty normal for the two boys, the awkward moment forgotten as quickly as it happened. Phil was sad to see Dan go at the end of the night, as usual but was comforted by the thought he’d see him the next day, probably.

 

He pulled his pyjamas on after he’d bid Dan goodbye and jumped into bed, exhausted. It took him quite a while to fall asleep, his thoughts plagued with his best friend for some reason. Tonight had been… weird to say the least. He wondered if Dan was feeling as awkward as Phil was about it. Was he making too big a deal out of it? It shouldn’t be a big deal, he guessed. They were best friends for crying out loud!   
  
Phil forced his mind to shut up, faintly feeling a small tickling sensation on his left hand as he drifted off to sleep.

 

-

 

Phil jumped awake to the sound of his phone blaring ‘Toxic’ by Britney Spears. He slammed his hand down on the alarm before getting out of bed. He walked to the bathroom and fumbled with the door handle before grabbing his toothbrush. Phil was sleepily brushing his teeth, looking at his reflection in the mirror before noticing something green on his hand. He promptly put his toothbrush down, inspecting his hand closely.

 

Oh no.

 

It couldn’t be. There was a fucking plant growing out of his palm.   
  
Phil knew what this meant, it’s what had happened when he’d started liking Sally in the second grade, Kyle in the fifth grade and Thomas in freshman year. Phil quickly pulled the plant out of his hand, feeling a soft tug on his skin.   
  
He knew it meant he’d caught feelings for someone, but who? He barely talked to anyone anymore, having shut off all of his friends after what happened with Thomas. Literally the only person he talked to was Dan!

 

Wait.   
  
Phil thought back to what had happened the night before, how warm he’d felt lying on Dan’s chest and how strangely disappointed he’d felt when forcing himself out of Dan’s tender embrace. His thoughts had been filled with his friend the whole of last night, and as much as Phil had wanted to deny it then, the fact that a plant had sprouted out of his palm left no room for questioning. He liked Dan.

 

This was not good. Very not good. In fact, so not good that Phil began pacing around his bathroom, hyperventilating while he was at it. His thoughts were running wild with what he should do, he couldn’t let himself nearly die again. One heartbreak had been enough for his emotions, not to mention his body.

 

After a good ten minutes of thinking (freaking out, really) Phil had come to a solution for his problem: he had to distance himself from Dan, ideally cutting him off completely. It made his heart hurt at the thought of not being as close to his best friend anymore, but it’s what he needed to do.

 

Phil quickly sent Dan a text saying he was feeling ill and would not be coming to school, and that Dan should just walk to school alone today. It wasn’t a lie, really. Phil wouldn’t be going to school, and he was feeling unwell, just not for the reason Dan would be assuming. Phil wiped the sweat off his brow and went back to bed. He couldn’t deal with this right now.

 

-

 

Phil spent the rest of the day playing video games, but it wasn’t much fun without Dan. He sighed. It had only been 16 hours and he was already having Dan withdrawal symptoms. Phil was just about to finish the level when the doorbell rung.

 

He groaned and begrudgingly made his way to the front door. He hated unexpected visitors. Phil swung the door open, his eyes widening when he saw who was on the other side of it.

 

“Phil! You’re a bit of a weakling, aren’t you? Missing school and leaving me all alone.” A smiling Dan teased, handing Phil a container filled with a mysterious brown substance.

 

“I made you chicken soup as well!”

 

Phil examined the liquid closely and cringed. It did not look appetising at all.

  
“Why is it brown?”

 

“I-erm, I’ll explain when we’re inside.” Dan said, pushing past Phil and walking into the house.

 

Phil internally groaned, why did Dan have to come over? Phil was supposed to be ignoring him!  Dan was the last person he should be around right now, but Phil was missing his best friend and did not have the heart to kick him out when he’d brought him chicken soup and was clearly missing Phil too.

 

Phil was snapped out of his thoughts when Dan tapped him on the shoulder.

 

“Oi, mate were you playing Mario Kart without me?” Dan was looking genuinely offended, his bottom lip sticking out in a pout. Why did he have to be so frickin adorable, it wasn’t helping Phi’s problem at all!

 

Phil nodded, ashamed of his betrayal.

 

“You’ll have to make it up to me. 1v1 me right now!” Dan grabbed Phil’s hand, guiding him to the couch.

 

Phil needed to forget, just for a bit that he couldn’t hang out with his best friend anymore. This would be the last time they’d hang out properly, at least until Phil was sure his feelings were completely gone.   
  
Phil chucked Dan a controller and grinned,

 

“You’re on, Howell.”

 

-

 

The next few months were a struggle for Phil. He’d had a great time hanging out with Dan that day, which came as no surprise. It really didn’t help his growing problem, however. The minute Dan had walked in he’d known he was seriously fucked. Seriously, why was Dan so cute? Coming over and bringing chicken soup just to make sure Phil was feeling better, he truly was a great friend.

 

After that day, Phil had tried, and succeeded to some extent of hanging out with Dan less. He’d declined Dan’s offers of hanging out as much as he could without seeming too suspicious, began walking to school alone (telling Dan he preferred solitude in the mornings, which Dan had just nodded suspiciously at) and only had Dan over a couple of times in the three month span.

 

Yet despite these efforts, Phil had just felt himself falling deeper into a dangerous abyss of feelings for his best friend. Anytime Dan smiled, laughed, or did anything really, Phil could feel his heart growing fonder. And there was proof too.

 

Spending less time with Dan wasn’t the only reason Phil had taken to walking alone to school. His feelings had grown, and as a result more plants were growing too. He wouldn’t have been able to hide the hundreds of flowers shooting out of the ground as soon as Phil walked past. They were beautiful, too as much as Phil hated to admit. They were more vibrant in colour, taller too than any flower that had grown from Phil’s previous crushes. Phil was more than a little scared of what that meant.

 

Right now, Phil was holding tightly onto Dan’s hand despite his better judgement. They were at the cinema, watching a horror film and Phil was terrified. Dan’s hand was soft and warm, calming him down a little, but not enough for him to be able to let go.

 

The film finally ended, thank god and Phil slipped his hand out of Dan’s, feeling empty at the loss. They walked out of the cinema side by side, bumping shoulders as Dan teased Phil for being so scared.

 

When they made it outside, Phil felt his heart sink with disappointment. He didn’t want to go. He was happy just being there with his favourite person. Stupid plants that grew with his stupid feelings could be screwed.

 

Phil leaned in to hug Dan goodbye, finding himself smelling Dan’s hair. Dan’s hugs never failed to make Phil’s tummy flutter. It was the way Dan held him so tightly, like he was protecting his little Phil. He felt so warm and so… Dan. Phil swooned for what was probably the seventh time that night. God, this was just sad AND creepy.

 

Phil reluctantly began pulling away, already feeling the warmth enveloping him disappearing.

 

His heart started beating ten times faster when he saw Dan’s eyes flicking down to his lips. It nearly short-circuited when Dan leant forward, capturing them in his own. Phil’s mind was void of all thoughts except one: Dan. He kissed back with everything he had in him, tangling his hands through Dan’s soft brown hair.

 

Phil felt like he could burst, a tingling feeling of warmth spreading throughout his body making him feel whole. Dan’s hands were around his waist, holding him like he was the best thing in the world.

 

Too soon, Dan was pulling away and the realisation hit Phil. Dan had kissed him. And he’d kissed back. What was he doing? He shouldn’t have let this happen! Dan was just going to leave him in the end, and Phil would be left heartbroken and nearly-dead. His eyes began welling up.

 

Dan’s satisfied smile fell as soon as he saw the tears in Phil’s eyes. He propped Phil’s chin up with his hand.

 

“Phil, what’s wrong? Is this not what you wanted?”

 

Phil shook his head, tears now falling down his cheeks. He tried to speak, but his voice was too thick with tears and he choked instead.

 

Dan looked even more worried now, gathering Phil up in his arms. He squeezed his friend tightly. He just wanted Phil to be okay. Phil continued sobbing into his chest, his cries getting more and more hysterical.

 

“I’m so sorry Phil. I didn’t mean to force myself on you, I thought you liked me too- god, I’m such a fuck up I don’t want you to feel like you have to be anything more than my friend.”

 

Phil wished he could talk, but he was sobbing too hard to get any words out. Dan couldn’t be more wrong, Phil wanted to be his friend and so much more but that was the problem.

 

He felt himself being walked over to the bench outside the cinema, sitting down when Dan did. The two boys sat together on the bench for what felt like forever, Dan just holding Phil and stroking his hair comfortingly.

 

When Phil finally calmed down, his voice was croaky and raw.

 

“You didn’t do anything wrong Dan,” Dan’s head perked up, surprised Phil was finally talking. “I like you, and not just in a friend way. You didn’t force anything on me, I wanted to kiss you.”

 

Dan’s brow creased with confusion.

 

“Then why’d you start crying?”

 

Phil gulped. He’d never told anyone about his powers before, but he needed Dan to understand.

 

“The last time I had feelings for someone I nearly died.”

 

Dan gasped, his hands flying to cover his mouth.

 

“Let me explain. I um- I have these powers that make me grow plants, but only when I have feelings for someone.”

 

Phil stood up and walked to the sidewalk, standing on a patch of grass. A bed of white gardenias immediately sprouted up around Phil’s feet.

 

Dan fell off the bench rather ungracefully. He quickly brushed his jeans off, and assured Phil that he was alright. Phil smiled a little at his friend’s clumsiness before continuing.

 

“When I’m in love with someone, like I was with my ex- a rose grows out of my chest. But when that person leaves me, every plant I’ve grown wilts, and I get really sick. When my ex left me I got so sick I had to stay in hospital for three months and I promised,” Phil gulped, willing himself not to cry again, “-I promised myself I’d never let myself catch feelings again. But a few months ago, I started liking you which is why I’ve been trying to avoid hanging out recently. I’m just so scared you’ll leave me and not only will I be heartbroken, I’ll be half-dead as well.”

 

There was silence for a few seconds. Phil played with his hands awkwardly, afraid of Dan’s response. Phil felt something tingling on his hand, and this time it wasn’t a plant. Dan was rubbing the back of his hand with his own.

 

“Well that was a fucking emotional rollercoaster. I can’t believe my best friend is a weird plant dork.” Phil clasped Dan’s hand tighter when he saw that his eyes were welled with tears.

 

“Tell me about it.” Phil shook his head, smiling at the boy in front of him.

 

“I know I’m young and dumb, and probably don’t even know exactly what love is. But I’m pretty sure it’s what I feel for you, and what I’ve been feeling for you for a long time. I don’t plan on ever leaving you. I’m not stupid, I know that most high school relationships don’t last but I promise you I’m not going anywhere. It doesn’t matter if we’re friends or something more, I’m always gonna be here.”

 

Phil couldn’t answer, even though he really wanted to. He felt a sharp pricking at his chest, something was trying to burst out. He cried out in surprise before lifting his shirt up slowly, already knowing what was underneath.

 

With trembling fingers, he slowly extracted the most beautiful flower he’d ever seen. The rose was white in colour, different to the dark red one that had bloomed when he’d fallen in love with Thomas. Its petals were velvety and smooth, and its thorns were miniscule.

 

Phil saw Dan’s eyes widen in surprise, before his expression settled to one of pure giddiness. Phil loved him.

 

“I guess this means I love you too?” He said, looking into Dan’s eyes.

 

“I guess it does.” Dan’s eyes were welling up even more now.

 

“Thank you for- for reassuring me. I believe you. I know you’re not going anywhere, and lucky for you, I’m not going anywhere either.” Phil leaned his forehead against Dan’s, their eyes locking before Phil pecked Dan’s lips, causing him to blush.   
  
Dan leaned away from Phil after the short kiss, but laced his fingers through Phil’s, unsubtly wiping at his eyes.

 

“Ok Phil, let’s wrap this shit up before I start crying.”


End file.
